the friendship of monsieur jeynois

by william hope hodgson

Captain Drool and the two mates sat in the cabin and argued, gross and uncouth; but Monsieur Jeynois said nothing. Only smoked his long pipe and listened, while the bosun held the poop deck!
I had grown to like Monsieur Jeynois, for the brave, quiet way of him, and the calm speech that seemed so strong and wise against the rude blusterings and oathings of the captain and the mates.
The Saucy Lady was a private venture ship - in other words, an English privateer - at the time of the French war. She had been a French brig, named La Gavotte, and had been sold at Portsmouth for prize-money.
Monsieur Jeynois and Captain Drool had bought her, and fitted her out against the French, with six twenty-four-pounder cannonades a side, and two long eighteen-pounders - the one mounted aft and the other for'ard, for chasers.
The brig was a matter of 350 tons burthen, and sailed very fast, and made good weather of it.
We had ninety-six able-bodied sailors for'ard in a fine, great, new fo'cas'le, that was fitted up when Monsieur Jeynois and Captain Drool had the vessel altered. There were also six gunners, that we had helped to run free of the Royal Navy, and good men they were, but mighty opinionated, and nothing would serve them but to sneer and jeer at all and aught because we were not so fine as a King's ship. And, indeed, why they troubled to sail in us was a thing to make a man wonder!
There were, also, twelve boys in the ship. Six of these were named midshipmen, and were from rich tradesmen's families of Portsmouth Town, and paid some sort of premium to walk the lee side of the after-deck and play lob-lolly to the captain and the two mates.
I was one of the other six - just common lads off the water front at Portsmouth, though I was no Portsmouth lad, but Lancashire bred and born, but part reared on the Welsh coast and afterwards in the south, for my father had been a shipwright in Liverpool, and then went to Cardiff, and came in the end to Portsmouth, where he worked in the Royal Dockyards till the day he died, which was two years before this story. And a poor and ignorant lad I was, as I do mind me, and talked a strange mixture of dialects and rough words. But this by the way.
We wanted to fight the French, and make good prize-money at brave work. And there you have the crew of us, with added thereto the bosun and the two carpenters.
Now, if you have never heard tell of Monsieur Jeynois, you might wonder to hear that he helped fit out a ship against the French. But, indeed, in Portsmouth Town, we had no trouble on this score, for a better hater of Frenchmen, and a greater fighter, never put a pegged boot to good deck-planks.
There were some that said he had been a great man the other side; and this I can well believe, for he was a great man, as all in that ship knew in their inwards. He had a steady, brown eye, that looked down into a man; and you knew that he feared nothing, save it might be God, which I do believe.
As for his hatred of the French, there were many tales to account for it; but none of them to the mark, as I must suppose. Yet, because he was a Frenchman, despite the many times that he had proved himself upon them, there were a thousand to hate him for no more than his name or his blood, both or either, as suited their poor brute minds. Also, while many had a deep respect for him, few loved him, because he was too quiet and aloof. And, indeed, I doubt not that, because there was something great of heart within him, there were many of the poorer souled that hated him for no other cause than that he waked in them - though scarce they knew it - a knowledge of their own inward weeviliness.
And this was the man that sat in the cabin with Captain Drool and the two mates - Hankson and Abbott - and would listen to their rude arguing, that even I, the cabin lad, could oft see the gross folly of. And then, maybe, by a dozen quiet words, he would show them their own poor selves, in a mirror of brief speech that made them and their thoughts and child's plans of no more account than they were; so that I have seen the three of them stare at him out of eyes of dumb hatred.
And then he would show them the way that the thing should be done, and they would be forced to admit the rightness of his reasoning; yet hating him the more for his constant rightness, and the way that he seemed to know all and to fear naught.
Only one thing he did not know, and that was the science to navigate; else I venture he had never sailed with any captain other than himself.
And there, in this little that I have told, you have the causes that led to the greatest fight that ever a single man put up against a multitude.
It came about in this wise. After dinner the captain and the mate that was not in charge of the deck would sit awhile and drink a sort of spiced rum-toddy. But Monsieur Jeynois drank only plain water, flavoured with molasses, and often left the table with a quiet excuse that he would see the weather.
Then, when he was gone, the captain and whichever of the two mates that was with him, would fall to cursing him, from his keel upwards, and taking no more heed of me - whom I do venture to think they thought no more of than a wood deck- bucket! - than if I were not there; save, in truth, one of them needed the molasses or the hot water or the ground nutmeg; whereupon I was as like to get a clout as a word, to make known their wants.
And clout me they would do at any moment and were at first as handy to it if monsieur were with them as if he were on deck.
Not that monsieur said ever a word, one way or the other, for he had no foolish softness about him; yet he never struck me. And once, when Captain Drool had opened my head with his pewter mug, I looked quick over at monsieur, and there was a look in his eyes that made me think he disliked to see me treated so, though he forbore to say aught, but yet I could think had come near to that point at which he might speak.
And, indeed, this is but poorly said; yet, in part, expresses the thought that came to me, before I was knocked down again, for not hastening to fetch another dipper of rum.
But late that same night, when I was lying very sick and hot- headed under the cabin table - for I was allowed no hammock - monsieur stooped and looked under the table, and asked me how I was; and he fetched me, presently, a draught with his own hand, and afterwards put a wet cloth on my head, so that in a while I went over asleep, and woke pretty fresh in the morning.
And I found the cloth on my head to be a strip off one of monsieur's neck-clothes; and I put the thing inside my shirt, along with a big memory, as a boy will do that is badly treated, and has a great kindness where no kindness was ever expected; for I was but a common ship's boy, and monsieur a great soldier and a shipowner, as I have told.
And after that time I noticed that neither Captain Drool nor the mates touched me when monsieur was in the cabin; so that I supposed he had spoken quietly with them, when I was not there, against striking me.
Yet, when he was up on the deck, they would clout me as ever, and talk very loose and rash before me, as I have said, against monsieur. But threats are easy blows, so that I took little heed for a good while.
Then, one night after dinner, when we were heading up for the channel, they got talking in a way that set me taking sudden note of their words; for there was a real meaning and intention in what they were saying.
Presently, Captain Drool sent me to fetch aft the bosun to drink with them, which was a thing they had done several times of late after monsieur had gone up on to the deck.
They drank more that night than ever before, and the bosun so much as any. And every now and again Abbott, the second mate, would come down into the cabin and have a tot with them, and join in their talk; and me kept mighty busy, in the small pantry-place, scraping nutmeg for their spice-rum-toddy - that was the captain's own invention - and keeping water a-boil over a slush-lamp, all of which I did, despite the rolling of the ship, by holding the kettle with one hand and rubbing the nutmeg on to an iron grater with the other. And all the time I listened, so well as I could, for I had begun to see that they were planning to kill monsieur quietly in the cabin, and afterwards to dump him secretly over the side, and so let it be supposed he had been washed overboard at night; for we were shipping a deal of heavy water with the strong gale that we were running before.
Then Captain Drool should have the ship entire his own, for Monsieur Jeynois was a lone man, and none in England, so it was thought, to be an heir to him and his moneys. And to pay the two mates and the bosun for their help in this dire and brutal murder, the captain proposed to pay them the share of the prize-money that was coming to monsieur, and also a hundred golden guineas between them, each to share equal, but that they should claim no rights in the ship. And this they were well enough pleased with, being but vulgar and brutal men, and each as ignorant as the other; for it was only Captain Drool that knew the science of navigating.
And whether the man for'ard should suspect or not, seemed no great matter to these brutes as they guzzled and planned this foul deed; for there were a deal of men, I doubt not, as I have told, who could not get it out of their stomachs that monsieur was a Frenchman, and should be treated as such. There was not much love that we had those days for Frenchmen. Yet, in the main, the four men desired to keep secret the method of the end of monsieur, lest the crew should demand that monsieur's share of the prize-money be distributed, which the crew might certainly have done, deeming it their right, because monsieur was French, and because they would suppose that if the captain and the mates murdered monsieur, it would be with intent to "nig" his share of the prize-money. And this would most surely offend the crew, who would refuse to have them profit without the whole ship's company should profit. But, were the crew deceived in the matter, to believe that monsieur was truly washed overboard in a natural and wholesome fashion, then they would demand nothing, but expect the usual routine in such matters, which was that a man's prize-money be paid to his widow or to his heir, and this Captain Drool would provide for, by the aid of his brother who was a penman, and could write the name so clever upon the will that monsieur would think it his own were he to return again to life.
There you have it all, with the methods of their poor and brutish reasonings, which truly betray them for what they were.
And I, you must picture, holding the kettle above the slush- lamp in the pantry-room off the cabin, and grinding scarce enough nutmeg to supply their needs, for the grinding of the nutmeg upon the iron scraper made a noise that prevented me from hearing them; and so I was fain to keep stopping every moment to listen. And, indeed, once I set all my sleeve alight, with the ship rolling so, for I was taking no heed of the way I held the kettle, but stopping, as I have told, to hark very desperate; and suddenly I smelled the stink of my sleeve burning in the lamp, for I had my sleeve over the flame and the kettle nowhere near.
Yet they never so much as knew, for they had drunk a matter of four dippers of rum between them, and they could think of nothing but the dreadful murder they planned so earnest.
Now, at four bells - by which I mean ten o'clock of the night - monsieur came down from the deck, and for the first time in all that voyage I heard him speak his mind to the captain, nor minded who heard him; only first he had word with the bosun.
"Bosun," he said, "you are in the wrong part of the ship. Go up on to the deck and take charge until you are relieved."
Just that and nothing more, and spoken as quiet as you like, with good English that no man could better; for monsieur was French, to my thinking, only in name.
And the bosun! A great hulk of a man that weighed 15 stone as he lolled there. It was fine to watch, as you will acknowledge!
I peeped out of the pantry and saw him make first as if he had heard nothing, and then in a moment, though monsieur said never another word, only looked at him, he tried to catch the eyes of Captain Drool and the two mates, smiling in a silly, ugly way as he did so; but they looked everywhere but at him, like animals that have had guilty intentions, and are full of unease when their master comes near them.
There was not a sound in all the cabin, only the cracking and groaning of the bulkheads as the ship rolled in the storm, and the shuffling of the captain's mug as he pushed it to and fro upon the table top. And still monsieur stood and looked quiet and calm at the bosun.
Then the bosun rose up slowly, looking very awkward and oafish. He made to drain his mug, to show that he was at ease, but I heard the rim of it clitter foolish against his teeth, and he slopped the half of the toddy down the front of his serge shirt.
And still monsieur never spoke, nor said a further word, only looked after him, calm and quiet as he went out on to the deck, through the cuddy doorway, which opened out of the fore-end of the cabin.
Then monsieur turned to the captain and the two mates.
"I should think shame, gentlemen," he said, "to so demean yourselves upon the high seas by this drinking and easy speech with the rough shipmen; and more than this, by the neglecting of your duties as officers, so that the ship has been the great part of this watch without an officer upon the decks."
He said never another word but what I have told, and all spoken quiet and almost gentle. And those three rough men, that had just been planning his murder, answered him nothing; nor did one of them look at him, but sat there and shuffled their mugs and looked at their hands, all like the oafs they were; only, I could tell by the purple of Captain Drool's ears, that he was like a mad beast that is like to burst with the great stress of its anger and its cowardice.
Monsieur stood a matter of a few seconds; then, saying not another word, he went into his own cabin and closed the door.
When he was gone, the three men at the table stopped playing with their mugs and looking at their great hands, and they stared at each other. Captain Drool turned, and put out his tongue at monsieur's shut door, also he put his thumb to his nose and twiddled his great, coarse fingers; then he got up and went towards the companion steps. He tiptoed as he went, as if he were afraid monsieur might hear him. He crooked his finger to the two mates to follow him. And the three of them went up the steps into the night.
Presently, when I had cleared up the odd gear upon the table, and washed all, I put out the slush-lamp in the small pantry- place, for there was a lamp that hung always alight in the cabin. Then I fetched out my blanket from the locker, and hove it under the cabin table. I had no proper pillow, but used my sea- bag always, with my spare shift in it, for this purpose.
Also, it was my habit, each night when I turned in, to rig a length of spun yarn from one leg of the table to another, about a foot from the floor, so that if Captain Drool or the mates should want me in the night, I should escape being kicked in the head or face, for it was their way to wake me at any time by kicking at me under the table; but the spun yarn saved me a deal, for they never bothered to see what it was that their great sea-boots brought up against.
Now, when I had fixed all up for the night, and was rolled comfortable in the blanket, I lay a good while thinking, and half-minded to go to monsieur's door and knock gently to wake him. Yet, if they were watching the cabin from the deck - which they could do very easy without me seeing them - through the glass of the skylight, then I should be discovered, and they would, maybe, kill me when they murdered monsieur.
However, in the end, Monsieur Jeynois saved me the need of this risk, for he came out of his cabin presently, with his pea- jacket on, by which I saw that he meant to go up again on deck.
Then I put my head out a little from under the table, and said, "Monsieur!" But I was so in fear of them seeing me from the deck, that I spoke too low, and he was gone half across the cabin with his great strides - for he was a big man - before I had courage to call him proper.
But now I pushed my head out from under the table, and took my risk as I hoped a man should take it.
"Monsieur! Monsieur!" I said out loud. "Monsieur!"
He stopped, and I came out clean from under the table, dropping my blanket upon the floor, and standing there in my shirt, for I had no drawers.
"What is it, boy?" he asked in his quiet way, yet seeming to smile ever so little as he looked down at me.
"You're in horful danger, sir," I told him, for that was how I spoke those days, before even I was given the good schooling that I had later.
"How, boy?" he asked me.
"Cappen Drool an' Mestur Hankson an' Mestur Abbott an' Mestur Johns the bosun is going to murder you, sir. An' Cappen Drool is to have th' brig, an' he've offered t'others yourn share o' the prize-money an' a hundred guineas, an' they'm not to make no claim to own the ship," I told him, getting my words out all in a heap, because of my earnestness and eagerness to warn him.
And I can vouch that I had not one thought in that one and particular moment concerning my own safety, for which I am pleased to this day to remember.
"Go on, boy," said monsieur, still in his quiet voice. "What reason have you for saying this?"
"Aa heard 'em, sir, whiles I were boilin' yon kettle an' grindin' the nutmeg for the toddy. Aa'm feared, sir, they'm meanin' to hout you to-neet. Doan't 'ee go up on deck, sir, but hide yere in the cabing, an' I'll load ye a mint o' pistols, sir, an' we'll blow 'em into hell when they come down to murder ye."
"Boy," he said, "I put my trust in God, clean living, and a straight sword. And by these means, and your honest warning, am I prepared; but first, before we go further, if you must kill a man, why send him down in to hell? I would rather pray, as I slew him, that he might find heaven and a gladder wisdom."
I can remember now the quaint smile, kindly and human, that he gave me as I stood there in my shirt, staring up at him, and puzzled somewhat to know all the meanings of his speech, yet not entirely to misunderstand him.
"Now," he said in a moment, and clapping me twice gently upon the shoulder, "get back into your blanket, boy, and leave me freedom to meet my kind-intentioned visitors when they come."
Then suddenly I saw that he looked at my legs.
"Boy," he said, "where are your drawers?"
"Aa've got none, sir," I told him. "Maybe I'll buy two pair with my prize-money for next trip when we reach port."
He looked at me for a little; then, without a word, he turned and went back into his room. He came again in a moment, with a pair of fine silk drawers in his hand, the like of which I'd never seen.
"Put these on, boy," he said, and tossed them over my shoulder.
But I feared to touch the things, they were so fine and wonderful.
"I daurna wear 'em, sir," I told him. "They'm too fine."
But he laughed quietly. "You'll have to turn the legs up," he said, and went back into his room.
I saw then that he meant it, and I put the things on, never thinking for the moment of the captain and the mates, or whether they might be watching me through the dark skylight.
When I was into the drawers, I feared to get back into my rough blanket, lest I should dirty them; and it was while I stood there in the fine silk drawers, and looked at my old blanket, that I knew suddenly that danger was upon us, for I heard the ladder that led up to the after companionway creak, like it always did when anyone put their weight on it. And this I heard, despite the constant creakings and groaning of the bulkheads as the ship rolled; for I knew that particular creak, having kept ears for it through many an hour at my work, to let it warn me whether any of my oaf masters were coming below. Yet whoever was on the ladder was creeping down surely in their bared feet, for there was never the sound of any clumsy boot to be heard.
I waited not a moment, but ran to the door of monsieur's room, which he had hooked open to prevent it slamming to and fro with the heavy rolling. I could see his back. He had taken off the heavy pea-coat, and was priming his pistols - four brace, all silver mounted.
"Monsieur!" I said - and, maybe, I looked a little white to think that murder was even then so near. "Monsieur, they'm comin', sir! They'm comin' down th' ladder."
"Under the table, boy, and into your blanket," he said quietly, turning to the door.
"Aa'll feight 'em along with ye," I said, feeling suddenly that a man - that's how I named myself! - could die only once. "They'll get tha' behind, through yon cuddy door through the fore-cabin. Gi'e me one o' them pistols, sir. Quick, sir, I hear 'em!"
I was surprised to find myself speak so usual to monsieur.
And then, to stop him thwarting me, because I feared they would stab him from behind if I did not guard the cuddy door, I stepped up close to him and said, very hasty and speaking scarce above a whisper: "They seen me warnin' ye, sir. It ain't no use me hidin'. They'll just cut my throat after they'm done murderin' you. Quick, sir! They're into th' cabing now! Gi'e me one o' the pistols!"
He said nothing, just pointed his thumb to where three of the pistols lay. He had the fourth in his right hand, and his sword out now in his left. He fought always with his sword in the left hand, as I knew, for I had seen him before at the taking of our prizes. I made no more ado, but took up a pistol in each hand, and as I did this monsieur stepped out of his room into the big cabin.
"Well, gentlemen," I heard him say, "you see, I have done you the honour of staying out of my bunk to welcome you. Perhaps, Captain Drool, you would prefer that I take you first? Or - no, is it to be all together? Ah, Master Abbott!"
Before this I had run out into the big cabin. There had been a loud and violent thudding of bare feet as they rushed monsieur, and as I reached the doorway of his room, I had seen Captain Drool and the two mates running at him with their cutlasses out. I had seen monsieur turn off a stab from Captain Drool with the barrel of his pistol, and then, with a wonderful quick movement of his wrist and forearm, he put his long sword right through Abbott's chest. Monsieur was wonderful with the sword.
Now, I had thought well when I had planned to guard monsieur's back; for at this moment the cuddy door, that led to the main deck through the fore-cabin in the fore part of the poop, was hove open with a great crash, and the noise of the seas and the gale filled the cabin as the bosun and the chief carpenter Maull came tumbling in, each with a drawn cutlass in his hand. There was a loud shouting from Captain Drool and the mate, and the bosun and Maull the carpenter answered it with other shouts as they ran aft round the big table to get at monsieur's side and back.
I heard monsieur say, in a quiet voice: "Guard my back, boy."
Just those words he said, and never looked round, but fenced off the mate's cutlass with the long barrel of his loaded pistol, and kept Captain Drool in play with his sword, all as easy and calm as if he were playing some game of skill for a wager rather than for his own life.
And you shall see me in that moment as proud as a young turkeycock with the trust he put in me; and full of good courage, both because of his calmness, that infected me the same way, and because of the fine pistols of two barrels each that I held ready in my hands.
"Mestur Johns and Mestur Maull," I shouted, "bide where ye are, or I shoot ye dead this moment!"
But, maybe, they thought of me as no more than a boy, and of no account, for they came with a great cheer and shouting round the end of the table, to get behind monsieur. And Maull, who was first, made a great stroke at monsieur with his cutlass, but the beams of the deck above his head were a better guard than me. For I had been too late with my pistols to save monsieur, if one of the great deck beams had not caught the top of the carpenter's cutlass and stopped the blow midway.
Yet monsieur was more watchful than I knew, for he spared one brief moment of his sword-fence with Captain Drool, and cut sideway with his left hand, so that his sword shone a moment like a flame in the lamplight. And immediately Maull loosed his cutlass, that was notched hard into the oaken beam, and clapped his hand to his neck, and went backwards into the bosun, singing out in a dreadful voice that he was dead. And dead he was in less than a minute after.
But before this I had loosed off twice into the bosun, and shot him in the arm and again in the thigh. And he also dropped his cutlass - or cutlash, as we called them - and made to reach the cuddy door, which he did in the end by creeping upon his knees and hands.
I have thought that monsieur had some notion to spare the lives of Captain Drool and the mate, for he had the loaded pistol in his right hand, and might have shot the mate at any moment; and equally he had the captain's life upon his sword point all the time, as it might be said.
But sudden the mate jumped back out of the fight, and whipped a pistol very smart out of the skirt of his blue coat that was a fancy of his from the body of a man he killed in the taking of our first prize.
Then monsieur used his own pistol in a wonderful quick way, and still fencing off Captain Drool's cutlass. As he loosed off, he called out in a low, quick voice: "I commend you to the mercy of God, John Abbott."
And with these words he had fired, before the mate had his aim taken. I have thought often upon those words.
At this moment, and as the mate fell upon the deck of the cabin and died, there was a great shouting out upon the main deck of the brig. I caught the meaning of certain of the shoutings:
"Monsieur's killing the cap'n! Monsieur's killing the cap'n!" I heard someone sing out twice, and maybe three times. Then the bosun's voice: "Smart, lads! He've cut Chip's throat, an' I be all shot through an' through!"
You must bear in mind that noises came oddly to me by reason of the great excitement of the moment, and the constant skythe, skythe of Captain Drool's cutlass along the blade of monsieur's lean sword, and the stamping of the captain's bare feet. There was also the noise of the gale and the sea-thunder that beat in through the open cuddy doorway out of the black night, and all the time the creaking and the groaning of the bulkheads, and the bashing and clattering of the cuddy door as it swung and thudded to and for with the brig's rolling.
Then, immediately, I heard the shouts rise clear and strong through the gale, and coming nearer until, in a moment, I heard the thudding of scores of feet racing aft along the decks.
And suddenly Captain Drool leaped back from his vain attacking of monsieur, and turned and ran for the cuddy door, shouting to the men to save him, though monsieur made never a step to follow.
Yet Captain Drool showed his deathly hatred of me in that moment, for he hove the cutlass out of his hand across the table in my face as he passed me.
But I stooped very quick, and the heavy blade struck the bulkhead over me. Then, stooped as I was, I shot Captain Drool in the head over the edge of the table, with no pity in me, for he had made so wantonly to kill me; also, I had been beat and kicked too oft by the brute. Moreover, while he lived to urge the men on, neither monsieur nor I might hope ever to come alive through the night.
Thus died Captain Drool, after monsieur had spared him a hundred times.
Now, in the instant after I shot the captain, I had jumped very speedy into monsieur's cabin, where I caught up his powder-flask and his bag of pistol bullets. Then I was into the big cabin again in a moment.
"Monsieur!" I called out, very breathless. "The cap'n's cabing, sir - the cap'n's cabing!"
And I ran past him into the captain's cabin, which had the door open, and was behind him as he stood there with his sword, staring very earnest and ready towards the cuddy doorway.
"Coom in, sir!" I began to call to him. "Coom in, sir!"
And then, before I could say another word, the big cabin seemed to be full of shouting men all in one moment, for they came leaping over the washboard of the cuddy alleyway, all helter-skelter through the cuddy doorway, which was in the forepart of the cabin, as you know by this.
There were maybe twenty and maybe thirty of them; but I never had time to think how many there were, but only that they filled all the for'ard part of the big cabin.
Those that were into the cabin stopped their shouting, and seemed to hang backward when they saw monsieur standing there with his sword in his hand. But there were more in the cuddy alleyway and out on the main deck that pushed and shouted to get in, so that the men in the cabin were all a-sway, they pushing backward and the men in the alleyway and upon the main deck pushing for'ard to come into the cabin.
I saw Jenkson, Allen, Turpen, and three or four others among the men that had broke into the cabin, and all of them were of the poorer sort, being no more than the rough scum of Portsmouth Town that had come to sea along with better men to make easy money; though, truly, there was not much easy money that ever I found this way!
Now, I knew these men were among the worst in the ship, and they had never a good word for monsieur behind his back, though quiet enough to his face, but had often called him a frog- eater and a French spy, and many another oafish name that had no base in fact; though, I doubt not, they near believed the ugly things they gave breath to.
And so you must see that last great scene, with monsieur standing there, and me behind him in the open doorway of the captain's cabin, and loading the fired-off barrels of the two fine pistols, the while that I stared at the men and monsieur. And I put a double charge of powder into each of the barrels, and upon each charge I dropped three bullets, for I saw that I should have less need of a nicety of shooting than of power to kill oft and plenty with the greatest speed.
As I have said, you must see that last great scene - how the men, though so plentiful, hung off from him, with their knives bare in their hands, ready for brutal slaughter, yet fearing him, while he stood quietly, and had no single thought to fear them, not if they had been a hundred strong. And every few moments there would fight through into the cabin another of the men, and would fall silent with the rest, staring like dumb brutes from monsieur to the dead and back again to monsieur. And all that brief while I loaded the pistols, with my hands trembling a little, though not so much with fear as might be supposed.
Now, there was hung on the bulkhead of the captain's cabin, close to my elbow, a great brass-mouthed blunderbuss, and, having a sudden thought from Providence, I stepped back into the captain's room, and reached this down very quick. I had pushed the two pistols into the front band of my new silk drawers, and now I took monsieur's powder-flask, and near emptied it down into the blunderbuss.
There was a pair of woollen hose that belonged to Captain Drool hanging over a wood peg, and I snatched one, and pushed it down with my hand into the great barrel of the blunderbuss that was so wide I could reach my arm down it. And after that I took the bag of pistol bullets, and emptied them, every one, down into the barrel upon the powder and the woollen hose; and afterwards I thrust down the other hose upon the bullets to hold them steady in the barrel. Then, very hasty yet with a proper care, I primed the great weapon. Afterwards I cast the powder- flask on to the deck, and ran very quick with the blunderbuss to the door of the cabin.
There was scarce any shouting now, for as this man and that crowded himself into the cabin, and saw monsieur standing there with his sword and the pistol, and the dead men lying about the deck of the big cabin, they grew silent.
But suddenly some of those that were at the back began to sing out odd questions and abuse concerning me.
"What's the cub doin' wi' the blunderbuss?" shouted one.
"It aren't never loaded!" sang out another of them.
And so they began to get their courage to attack monsieur by miscalling me that they had no fear of.
"Coom back inta th' cappen's cabing, monsieur!" I kept whispering, so that he might hear me yet the men hear nothing.
In the end he heard me, for I saw him shake his head as if he were bidding me be quiet. Then in a little he spoke to the men, choosing a moment when they were silent.
"For what reason have you come aft?" he said, speaking very ordinary.
"You'm murdered cappen - all vour of 'em!" shouted a man.
"We'm coom, maybe, to zee if you'm likin' to be murdered, same as poor cappen an' dree oithers!"
"They'm geet na more'n they axed for!" I shouted out.
"They tried to murder monsieur-"
"Quiet, boy!" said monsieur, without looking round.
"Yes, sir" I answered him; and then, in that moment of time, I heard a sound on the companion-ladder, and I shouted out to monsieur: "Thee's sommat coomin' down th' ladder, monsieur!"
As I shouted this, there was a slithering noise and a dull thud, as if someone had fallen, and then a low groaning. I stared hard at the doorway that led to the companion-ladder, and everyone in the cabin stared the same, save monsieur, who watched the men.
"It's the bosun!" shouted one of the men. "Howd'y, bosun!"
I saw the bosun's great head and face come round the edge of the doorway, about two feet from the floor. It was plain to me that he was creeping on his hands and knees, because of the wound in his leg.
Then, in a moment, he had whipped his hand in round the door, and I saw that there was a ship's pistol in his fist. He had fired before ever I could bring out a shout, and he hit monsieur somewhere, for I heard the horrid thud of the bullet, and I saw monsieur jerk his body as he was struck.
Then the bosun roared out in a great voice: "On to him, lads. On to him. He's done for!"
And, at the shout, the men broke forward upon monsieur in a crowd with their knives. Yet I was to see a wonderful thing, for monsieur stood firm and swaying to the roll of the ship, despite that he was hit, as I knew, and as the men rushed upon him his sword made a dozen quick flashes in the lamplight, so that it was like an uncertain glimmer among the men; and suddenly they gave back from him, and there were four of them went thudding to the floor and five more that were wounded.
Yet they had got at monsieur; for, as I ran forward to aid him with the blunderbuss, I saw that there were three knives in his breast, though he still kept upon his feet, with his great strength of body and his greater strength of mind, or will, which are both the same thing, as I do think.
"Monsieur!" I cried out, like a lad will call out when he sees his hero all destroyed. "Monsieur!" And he looked down at me and smiled a little, steadying himself with the point of his sword upon the deck of the cabin.
There was not another sound in the place, for they saw that he was done; but, indeed, I was not yet done.
"Great men ye are!" I called out. "Forty to one, ye swine, an' him wounded dead, an' ye fear him like death-"
I'd got no further, when one of them threw a knife at me, that cut me a bit in the arm; and on that I dropped upon my knee and lunged forward the great blunderbuss.
They gave back from it, like they might from death, which it was. But one of them called out that it was not loaded, and they came forward in a great rush once more with their knives. But I pulled the trigger of the blunderbuss, and loosed into them near half a flask of good powder and maybe two pounds' weight of pistol bullets.
The cabin was filled with the smoke of the great weapon, and out of the smoke there were dreadful screamings and the thuddings of feet; but for my part I lay flat upon my back, all shaken and dazed from the kick of the blunderbuss.
Then I rolled over and got upon my knees; and as I did so I saw that monsieur lay quiet beside me.
I dropped the blunderbuss, and caught monsieur quickly by the shoulders, and dragged him, upon his back, into the captain's cabin. Then I shut the door very hasty, and slid the bolt, and afterwards I drew and pushed one of the captain's sea chests up against it.
When I had done this, I felt round for the box where Captain Drool had kept his flint and steel, for there was no light in the place, now that I had shut the door upon the lamp in the big cabin.
Presently, in no more than a minute, I had the captain's lamp alight, which burned very bright with good whale oil; and I stooped then quickly to care for monsieur.
I found him lying silent where I had drawn him; but his eyes were open, and, when I knelt by him, he looked at me, quiet and natural, yet with a little slowness in the way that he moved his eyes.
"Monsieur!" I said, near sobbing because he was so near gone. "Monsieur!"
There was a minute of silence between us, and I heard the uproar ease outside the main cabin; but the door was thick and heavy for a ship's door, and deadened the sounds maybe more than I knew.
Abruptly, there came almost a stillness out in the big cabin; and then, sudden, a great blow struck upon the door, that set all the bulkheads jarring and the telescopes in the beckets leaping.
But I had them upon the hip, for I shouted out in my lad's voice, very hoarse and desperate: "If ye break the door, I'll blow the ship to hell. Aa've geet the powder-trap oppen, an' Aa've me pistols. Sitha! If ye break in the door, Aa'll loose off me pistol into the powder!"
Just that I sung out to them; and never another blow was struck upon the door, for the powder was stored under the deck of Captain Drool's cabin, as all the ship knew, and I better than any, being the lad that had cleaned his cabin many a score of times. And this is the reason that I chose to retreat there from the men.
"Boy," I heard monsieur saying from the floor, "is the hatch open?"
"No, monsieur," I said, grinning a little at the easy way I had driven the men off.
"Open it, boy," he said gravely. "Nor tell ever a lie with a light tongue. And when you have to deal a man the bitterness of death, be not over eager to consign him to hell, but rather to God, who understandeth all and forgiveth all."
"Yes, sir," I said; and opened the powder-hatch, with a great fear at my heart that I was truly come to the end of life.
"Am I to shoot into th' powder, sir?" I asked him, all strung- up and ready to shut my eyes and fire at his bidding.
But he waved his fingers a little for me to come to him; and when I was come to him, he lay a moment and looked up at me, seeming to smile a little in spite of his pain.
"You are a strange boy," he said at last in a weak voice.
"Fetch me a sheet of paper from the captain's desk - nay, fetch me the logbook and a quill and the ink."
When I had fetched these, he bid me put them upon the deck, to the left of him, and to open the logbook at the last entry, also to wet the quill ready.
"Now, boy," he whispered, "make good haste and gentle, and help me over a little upon my left side. Quick now, before I am gone, or it will be too late to do God's own justice."
His voice was very weak, and whistled thin and strange as he spoke; and when I had helped him with all my power of gentleness on to his side, I saw how he had been lying there in his blood.
"Steady me so, boy," he whispered; and I steadied him while he wrote.
And as he wrote,_ labouring to hold in his groans and to contain all his senses to his purpose, I could see the handles of the knives in his breast. And so he writ, and made no ado of the agony it cost him; but truly a greater victory over mortal pain I could think a man never won.
Now, this is the letter, which I have by me to this day, though I was too ignorant at that time to know what it was that he wrote:

To Master Alfred Sylles,
The Corner House,
Portsmouth Town.

Dear Master Sylles, - I write this near death, and with no power to write much. See that justice be done me in this fashion, to wit, that the boy who bears this, John Merlyn, shall be mine heir. See that he go to a good school, well equipt. I will tell him the names of my dead lady, so that you shall know that he is indeed the youth of this my will and last testament, though none here can witness, for I am alone save for this boy, who hath fought by and for me as I could have wished mine own son to fight.
From him will you have all the story.
Farewell, dear Master Sylles.
ARTOIS JEYNOIS.

When this was writ, he laid the quill down between the pages, so that the rolling of the ship should not squander it. But when I would have helped steady him again on to his back, he bid me wait and listen, for that he would certainly die with his words unsaid when he moved to lie down again.
"Remember these three names, my boy," he said; "nor tell them to any on earth save Master Sylles of the Corner House of Portsmouth Town, whom you know by repute, and to whom I have writ this letter. The names are Mercelle Avonynne Elaise. Now, repeat them till you can never let them slip.
He waited while I said them over a dozen times, maybe, then he caught his breath a little, and seemed as if he were gone; but presently he breathed again, but with a louder noise and bleeding very sadly.
"To Master Sylles tell all that you know," he said; "and because you have been a brave and a faithful lad, I bequeath to you my sword, to use only with honour."
He caught his breath again, and I trembled with a strange lad's ague of pity to know how to ease him; but after a little while he began again, but whispering: "How you shall escape, lad, I know not; but hold this cabin, for here they are in fear of you, because of the powder. Presently, when the ship is into the Channel, you may have chance to swim ashore. But wrap the letter up safe first in an oilskin. Tell Master Sylles all. Now, may God be with you, boy. Lay me down."
He sank his great shoulder against me as he spoke, and slid round on to his back with a strange, deep groan, and in that moment the light went clean out of his eyes, and I saw that he was truly dead.
And I knelt there beside him, and cried as only a lad can cry over his dead hero.
Of the manner of my escape, I need to tell but little here, for that night the men, being in fear of the law, ran the brig ashore below the Lizards, thinking to drown the ship and me, and so hide their foul work upon the stark rocks.
But they made a bad business of their landing, and many were drowned because of the heavy seas; but I, who stayed in the ship, was safe, for she held together until the morning, when the weather was grown fine; and I swam ashore, with monsieur's sword made fast to my back.
Yet it was a matter of twelve weary days after this before I came safe into Portsmouth Town, where I learned from good Master Sylles that I was the heir of monsieur. And how good Master Sylles did weep - for he had loved him - when I told him all concerning the vile murdering of monsieur.
But he stayed not at weeping, being a practical man as well as a warm friend, for when the bosun returned to Portsmouth Town a while after, supposing me to be drowned in the brig, Master Sylles had the watch upon him within the hour, and hailed him to high justice, so that a week later the bosun was hanged in chains at the corner of the four roads outside Portsmouth Town, to be for a warning to shipmen and landsmen that the trade of murder shall bring eternal sorrow.
And at last I am come to an end of my telling of that dear friend of my youth, who is with me in my memory all the long years of my life. And even in that early day did his goodness and charity affect me; so that, as well I do mind me, once when I passed the dried body of the bosun, I must stop and loose off my cap, and set up a prayer to God for him, for I knew that Monsieur Jeynois would so have wished it.